Under the Thousand Faces of Stars
by Darktiger2
Summary: Basically a prequel to what happens in 'In the Moon's Bloody Shadow' and 'In the Sun's Teary Reflection'. Nothing biggie. Just a simple oneshot.


_Hello! Well, today's my birthday, so I decided to (finally) write the one-shot that I had in my head for some time now._

_To clear things straight, this is a prequel to what happens in 'In the Moon's Bloody Shadow'. Also, this is just a one-shot._

_Basically, I really liked the title I made up and I couldn't let it go to waste…so I made this up._

_Right. Disclaimer._

_Don't own them. Period._

_Notes:_

_Hm…basically angst warning. Nothing major…not like 'In the Moon's Bloody Shadow' or 'In the Sun's Teary Reflection'._

* * *

_Thousand Faces of Stars_

_Storms gather on distant horizons,_

_Thunder rolling as lightning disappears,_

_The wind picks up, echoing our despair,_

_Reflecting the choices we made,_

_Trees bend in the gale,_

_Shadows stretch as darkness arrives,_

_Clouds cover the sky,_

_Silence disappears in the storm,_

_Rain splatters on the ground,_

_Mirroring our faces and our emotions,_

_Looking away, we shatter the reflection,_

_But the emotion still stays,_

_For a moment, the storm halts,_

_The clouds part, showing the sky,_

_We look up, just for a second,_

_And find ourselves under the thousand faces of stars._

_By: me._

* * *

"Will you just listen to reason, Raphael?"

"Reason? What reason? Oh, is that the lecture you were going on about? 'Cuz that was just bull—"

"Raphael! _Don't you **dare** curse—"_

"Oh I am so sorry, great-and-fearless leader, sir! I didn't know your ears were so sensitive—"

"Raph…you're really getting on my nerves—"

"Really? 'Cuz you're already on mine!"

"Um…guys—"

"STAY OUT OF IT MIKEY!" Two voices yelled at the same time.

Mikey quickly backed away, his ears ringing. "Okay…okay…Jeez…" He said, holding his hands up in defense. But his two elder brothers weren't paying any more attention to him. They were too busy arguing again.

Mikey quickly retreated to the couch, where Don was kneeling on the back of the couch, watching the fight. He looked at Mikey as he plopped down beside him. "At least they agree on _something_…"

Don laughed a little before looking back at the fight again.

Mikey kept massaging his ears. "Boy, can they shout…"

Don sighed as he turned around and sat down. "Well, both had had a _lot_ of practice these past weeks."

Mikey sighed, nodding. "What is this, the fifth time today?"

Don shrugged. "I don't know. I quit counting a long time ago. Even Master Splinter quit trying to stop them from fighting a while ago…"

"You know, Raph should really lay off of Leo. Leo's under enough pressure as it is…"

Don nodded, silently agreeing as he listened to his brothers' voices rising. "Poor Leo. These past few weeks must be really nerve wrecking. The Purple Dragons are trashing every store they can find, while the Foot are breaking into every museum in New York! Last week, they stole this black cube thing from the museum downtown. Meanwhile, at the same time, the Purple Dragons managed to trash April's store/apartment. It's pretty much destroyed now. Lucky she wasn't home…"

Mikey sighed. "Yeah, real lucky. Poor April though. She hasn't been having much luck with apartments has she? The last one was completely destroyed by the Shredder. Now, the Purple Dragons trashed it. At least she found a good one."

Just then, the door slammed, causing both of them to jump. Turning around, they expected Leo to still be standing there, but both were surprised to see Raph standing there instead.

Raph growled in anger before marching past them, grabbing the remote and throwing himself down on a vacant couch near them.

"Where's Leo?" Don asked carefully. When Raph was fuming, you'd better be careful.

"Left."

"You know Raph, maybe you should lay off of Leo—" Don trailed off at the glare that Raph was giving him.

* * *

Leo sat hidden in the shadows of the roof. It was night, and the building was abandoned, so he didn't need to worry.

There was a breeze blowing, but it was a cold breeze.

But Leo didn't care. He needed to clear his head. Sometimes, he hated being the leader and the elder brother. Sometimes, it was just too much. He could use a break.

Looking up at the sky, Leo saw to his surprise that it was covered with clouds. It looked like it would rain.

Maybe the rain would do him some good.

* * *

Leo woke up to the sound of his shell cell ringing at a loud and steady pace. Sitting up, Leo realized that he was still on the roof. He must've fallen asleep.

The ringing brought him quickly back into reality. Blinking tiredly, he thought that maybe his brothers were worried.

But then, with a sinking feeling, he realized that that ringing would be different. A quieter ring. This one was the emergency one.

As he reached to flip it open, the ringing suddenly stopped. The shell cell went dead. His heart pounding, Leo flipped it open to hear nothing. The connection was cut.

Scrambling to his feet, he jumped quickly over the edge of the roof and landed on fours on the street below. He needed a manhole _fast_.

There was one in the alley near him. He came up from there.

But as he was about to go in there, he realized that he was not alone.

Drawing his swords, Leo waited.

He didn't have long to wait, because out of the shadows stepped a whole bunch of Foot soldiers.

With a sinking feeling, Leo found that he was completely surrounded. Gripping his swords, he attacked, knowing that somewhere deep inside, he needed to get home _now._ And no lousy Foot soldier was going to stop him.

* * *

He didn't know how long he'd been fighting for. The soldiers kept on coming. Once he took down one, ten took its place.

He was tiring fast, but the thoughts of his brothers kept him going. Gritting his teeth, he attacked again, hoping to get closer to the manhole.

Then, all of a sudden, the Foot ninjas disappeared. As quickly as they had come, they were gone.

Leo blinked as he looked around, confused. Something was really very wrong.

But then he remembered his brothers.

Without wasting time, he rushed to the manhole, opened it before jumping down. He didn't even wait for his eyes to adjust to the darkness down there. He knew the sewers like the back of his hand.

Quickly rushing off, he hoped that he'd get there in time…

* * *

Well. He didn't.

Leo groaned as he surveyed the damage. He was too late. If only he hadn't fallen asleep up there! He would've been able to protect them.

Quickly he set out to search for his brothers. It wasn't so hard to find them. They were collapsed under some wooden rubble, which Leo thought might have been the table at one point.

They were unconscious and looked pretty badly beaten up. Checking them hurriedly, he found no broken bones or anything. They were just badly beaten up.

Leo looked around in confusion. There were marks indicating that the Shredder was here…but then why were his brothers not dead or kidnapped or something? It just didn't make sense…

Wasn't the Shredder out to kill them all?

Just then, something caught his eye. Gasping Leo rushed over to a rubble of wood and stone. Quickly digging through it, he found what he was looking for. Master Splinter.

He seemed to be in a worse shape than his brothers. He, too, was beaten up very badly, but there was also blood coming from a pretty bad wound on his head.

But he was still alive.

Leo gritted his teeth. If he hadn't—

This was no time for safe blaming. He chided himself. He needed to get his brothers and Master to safety. The Shredder could be back at any time…

Quickly whipping out his shell cell, he dialed April's number. She was currently residing with Casey, but she had just bought herself a new apartment.

The Shredder didn't know about that, so they could be safe there…

* * *

Once April and Casey had found out what had happened, they had quickly arrived to help him.

Then, just like Leo had thought, they took them to April's new apartment. There, they had quickly thrown together a makeshift bed for Splinter, while his brothers got a futon to lie on.

Then, April had gotten busy with fixing them up. She had been an assistant in a hospital when she was younger, so she knew how to deal with stuff like this.

* * *

Leo sat by the window, watching the dark and empty street. Casey had gone to his apartment to grab a few things. He had decided to move in with April to help her and Leo take care of his brothers.

The door opened, causing Leo to look up from the window. April stepped in, looking tired and worn, which wasn't so surprising, since it _was_ four in the morning. But other than that, she seemed fine.

"Raph, Don and Mikey seem to be okay…They have some major bruising, but nothing serious. When they wake up, they'll be sore for a while, but they'll be fine."

"What about Master Splinter?"

April hesitated before she sighed. "I did the best I could, Leo…but he seemed to have slipped into a coma from the head wound. Other than that, he's fine…"

Leo closed his eyes for a second before asking, "Is he going to make it?"

April nodded. "Definitely. His body just needs to heal. He'll be fine, don't worry. He'll wake up soon. I know how to deal with people in comas, so he'll be fine. Really."

Leo nodded, letting out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "Thanks, really."

April nodded again, before putting a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry. Everything will be okay."

Then, she smiled at him, before going to the bathroom to clean up.

Leo turned back to the window, this time looking at the sky. He wanted to believe that. He really did. But it just didn't make sense.

First, his brothers get attacked.

Then, they are knocked unconscious, but come out barely harmed? Something was really wrong here…

Where they missing something?

Leo gritted his teeth as he looked up at the sky.

If he had been there, then he could've prevented all this…maybe…

At least, he would know what they were missing and why this made absolutely no sense at all…

The wind had picked up and was blowing the clouds on steadily. For a second, the sky cleared and Leo could see thousands of faces of stars staring down at him.

Then, clouds rapidly covered the sky up again and it began to rain.

Leo looked away. It seemed like the stars were watching him. Reflecting his troubles and his choices. They seemed to be blaming him for what happened…

Maybe April's right…Leo thought half-heartedly. But somewhere deep inside, he knew that she wasn't.

And he had no clue how right he was.

* * *

_Right. Just a short one-shot setting up the mood for the continuation. Nothing biggie._

_See ya!_


End file.
